Stylos is the blog of Jeff Riddle, a Reformed Baptist Pastor in North Garden, Virginia. The title "Stylos" is the Greek word for pillar. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul urges his readers to consider "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth."

Monday, November 17, 2014

"For David speaks concerning him....": Christ in the Psalms

While preaching last evening at Bells Grove on a section from
Peter’s Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:22-31) wherein Peter exposits Psalm 16 as a
prophesy of Christ’s resurrection, I was struck by these words, “For David
speaks concerning him….” (v. 25).

This statement is a reminder:

1. That the Old Testament speaks about Christ. We do not have to limit our preaching to the
New Testament to speak explicitly of Christ.
He is the focus of both testaments.

2. The Psalms, in
particular, speak of Christ. I thought
of this especially with regard to the singing of Psalms. We have two explicit commands in the New
Testament which instruct believers to sing canonical psalms (Eph 5:19; Col
3:16). I am an advocate for inclusive
psalmody. We should include the singing
of Psalms in our corporate worship. Sometimes
one will hear the objection, “But the Psalms do not explicitly name the name of
‘Jesus.’” Though the name “Jesus” is not
found in the Psalms, this does not mean that the Psalms do not speak of Christ.
Christ saturates the Psalms! In them we
find his nativity (Psalm 107:19-20), his teaching (e.g., Psalm 37:11), his miracles (e.g., Psalm 107:29), his
death (see Psalms 22, 69), burial (Psalm 16:10), resurrection (Psalm 16:8-11),
ascension (Psalm 47:5), session (Psalm 110:1), and second coming (Psalm 96:13).